Kaktus wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:20 pm
Luxobarge wrote: ↑Tue Feb 06, 2018 2:15 pm
Don't do it. Dreadful car, we had one for a few years and hated it with a passion.
Thanks, what was it about it that just didn't do it for you?
How long have you got?
Huge on the outside, tiny and cramped on the inside, especially the back seats (virtually useless) and a microscopic boot. The later models are even worse! Really hard to get in and out of the back, mind you need to be a crippled midget to even fit in the back seats. This in spite of a front door that is so huge when you open it in a car park you it hits the car next to you before it's open far enough to get out of the car.
Bone-jarring ride, I mean
really awful, painfully hard seats, generally really uncomfortable especially on bumpy roads (which is most of them nowadays).
Unpleasant to drive - the fly-by-wire throttle is lifeless and gives no feel or feedback, nor does the electrically assisted steering, it feels like driving a computer simulator.
The gearbox has no feel, is squashy and slow - oh, and by the way for the model years you're looking at they were well known for being notoriously unreliable, many if not most will have had to be rebuilt by now, simply not up to the job.
Generally irritating to drive - all the switch gear is in the wrong place and difficult to reach - some switches in the centre you have to release your seat belt before you can reach them! Also labels are difficult to read/interpret, reflections off that stupid big speedo flash back in your face and distract the driver and so on....
Unreliable - ours was still under the 3-year guarantee and I lost count of the number of times it went back to BMW for various problems, mainly electrical but also including whining drive belts, failing power steering, engine management faults etc. Mind you, more than once the BMW engineers left their nice snap-on tools lying around in the engine bay when we got the car back, so not all bad.
It's a triumph of so-called "funky style" over function - we loved it for the first few weeks then when the novelty wore off it became irritating, then we grew to truly hate it.
I could go on. We couldn't wait to get rid.
We replaced it with a 1965 Morris Minor. Far smaller footprint, but larger on the inside with a much more spacious feel too. Bigger boot. More economical with fuel, and FAR cheaper to insure, free tax. Cheap servicing. Lighter. Better visibility, easier to drive. More comfortable, softer ride. Takes 4 people without the rear passengers requiring limb surgery. 4 doors, all of which open fully when parked next to other cars. The only thing that the Mini did better was performance (which didn't matter for the urban driving we used it for), noise levels and safety. I'm struggling to think of ANYTHING else that the Mini did better. Progress eh?
Rant over.